ISL held their Winter Music Concert right before the two week break.
The girls and I went to watch Thomas perform. Mr. Szalay, "the best band teacher ever" according to Thomas, led the band and Thomas played the clarinet. Unfortunately we sat really far back and Thomas sat right behind Mr. Szalay. It was an impressive piece. Mr. Szalay could relate well to Thomas and his personality--he seemed to "get him" and Thomas said that he connected well with all of the students. He expected a lot of the kids too. I don't know if it was the difference between 7th and 8th grade or a difference in his teachers, but this year Thomas learned specific musical styles throughout the ages, how they differed and how they were similar, and he was required to compose a few pieces of music that reflected what he learned about these music styles. Definitely more required academically as well as musically. Thomas enjoyed the challenge.
After the concert, we headed to the embassy for the Christmas party. The kids were super excited. They've always loved the embassy parties and seeing friends there.
We brought David, Thomas' Jewish friend from school. They wanted to be social, so David came to be a part of our Christian holiday. David tried to even join in the Christmas caroling. :)
Santa and Mrs. Claus finally arrived and are making their way downstairs.
Russ and Sandra were troopers. ;)
And Dylan the gunnie, played "Buddy" the Elf.
Kendra our CLO ran the party. She did a great job organizing everything!
Andrew, Mike, Thomas, David, and Clark.
The kids each got to make a gingerbread cookie.
And of course we had to get pics with the Christmas crew:
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